The people anxiously sipping hot chocolate in the Canadian Embassy in Washington on a cold night in January almost a year ago couldn't have predicted the roller-coaster of trade provocations and bilateral blow-ups the next 12 months would bring. In hindsight, that unusually chilly Washington evening foreshadowed how the Canada-U.S. relationship would soon freeze over. Trump's tariff threats and his...
Liberal MP Bruce Fanjoy has a square glass case in his office that holds a spray-painted pair of sneakers he wore while campaigning for the federal election. He calls it his "Stanley Cup." Fanjoy became the MP for the Ottawa-area riding of Carleton in the last election after defeating Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, who had held the riding more than...
2025 saw rapid changes on the Canadian political scene. With the final days of 2025 rapidly falling to the wayside, Canadians are likely taking stock of the last 12 months. The past year has seen some rapid changes on the political scene — most notably in the prime minister's chair. At this time in 2024, Justin Trudeau was still mulling...
Prime Minister Mark Carney says it will take time for Canadians to see the results of efforts to grow and diversify the economy, but insists “we’ve got to keep on this track.” In a year-end interview with Global National anchor and executive editor Dawna Friesen, Carney said Canada is already in a better place than it was when he first...
Vancouver Island MP Aaron Gunn says he won't run for the leadership of the Conservative Party of B.C. because he doesn't want to risk giving the federal Liberals a majority government. Gunn says his departure could "upend the balance of power in Ottawa" and leaving would be too great a risk as Prime Minister Mark Carney continues to pursue a...
December 23, 2025 (Toronto, ON) – A new Liaison Strategies poll for the National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada (NEPMCC) finds Toronto mayor Olivia Chow leading in a potential re-match with former Toronto mayor John Tory, 39% to 35%. Brad Bradford, the first candidate to declare their intention to run for mayor, follows in third with 16% (+4)...
A new national Liaison Strategies poll conducted over the weekend for the National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada shows the Carney Liberals continuing to slide and now tied with the Conservatives at 38%. The Federal NDP stays steady at 12% nationally, and maintains 19% in British Columbia. Conducted from December 19-21, 2025, using Interactive Voice Response (IVR), the...
As 1993 drew to a close, Canada was on the edge. Two failed attempts at getting Quebec to sign the 1982 Constitution had put the Parti Québécois on the trail to a comeback. After floundering for eight years, the PQ led in the polls only months ahead of a provincial election. And under its hardline sovereigntist leader, Jacques Parizeau, it...
If you want to know why Canadians judge a leader as an effective prime minister, you can ask them directly. Or you can look at what sits behind those judgments. That is what I set out to do. I ran the same statistical test for Mark Carney and Pierre Poilievre and asked a straightforward question:
New regulations were put forward a year ago, promised since 2023 budget. Updates to the air passenger bill of rights appear stuck on the tarmac more than two years after the federal government promised changes — something that may come as unwelcome news for Canadian air travellers facing their own delays. After promising to improve the air passenger protection regulations...
Prime Minister Mark Carney says the holiday season is a time to slow down and reflect and to reconnect with loved ones. In a recorded message to Canadians, he says the holidays remind people of all traditions that light follows darkness. Carney, who is Catholic, says Christmas is a special time for Christians to recommit to follow the example of...
An important underlying purpose of the Combatting Hate Act is protecting communities of faith. Nobody should be intimidated or obstructed when they want to go pray. The act gives police clear tools to intervene when intimidation or obstruction of a community space occurs. It is an important signal that Parliament expects police and prosecutors to act to protect communities of...
Here’s my New Year’s list — not for the best or the worst of 2025 — but for the issue most consistently ignored, despite the fact that people care about it.
If there was ever a year that proved that politics can still surprise, it was 2025. U.S. President Donald Trump started it by declaring Canada the 51st state and ended it by adding his name to the Kennedy Center. Our spring federal election morphed from Conservative cakewalk to Liberal renaissance, and the winter saw a flurry of floor crossing. Alberta...
Osman Azizov, who allegedly hunted Jewish women, has been released on bail. How warped are our values in the name of accommodation and diversity
Doug Ford for Prime Minister? It’s the question everyone asks me, in both official languages — even though Ontario’s premier can only speak one of them.
Put the playlist on, and I’ll listen to everything from “Adeste Fideles” to “Petit Papa Noël.” I love Christmas music. But dancing among the carols and Christmas songs in my seasonal memory are a couple of other festive numbers, too.
The chickens are coming home to roost for Alberta Premier Danielle Smith. And as we prepare for 2026 to dawn, so many chickens are coming home she’s pretty much running a political poultry farm.
The world of politics often embraces contradictions. Canada faces a stark contradiction today. On the one hand, our country is dangerously divided, regionally and generationally. Both Quebec and Alberta may soon be holding referendums on sovereignty. Many younger Canadians living economically precarious lives resent the Boomers and Gen Xers, with their pensions, health care and other entitlements that millennials and...
MPs defect, unity frays and a leadership review looms for the Conservative Leader
He will have to face the fact that his opponent has been selling Tory policies better than he did — and do something about it. A year ago, Justin Trudeau was still determined to hang on as prime minister, still professing to believe he could win the next election against all odds and public evidence. If he’d held on, he’d...
I was standing in the back of a half-built warehouse in Kingston in April, watching Pierre Poilievre try to rouse his supporters. “We will reject,” the Conservative leader declared ominously, “the Century Initiative.” There were a few angry shouts from audience members who knew what he was talking about. Everyone else was silent. This radical scheme, designed by “multinational corporations”...
If the theme of 2025 in Canadian politics was to expect the unexpected, the ways in which the political world turned upside down will reverberate into 2026. Everyone will have their own surprise developments of this truly tumultuous year, but here are my top five picks for the big country-shaking shifts of 2025.
There is a great deal to love about Canada, but one of the greatest things is that this country will never have a Donald Trump. That thought crossed my mind as this narcissistic egomaniac addressed his countrymen last week in what could only be called an orgy of ego-liberation and industrial scale mendacity. One American commentator said it was as...
On Dec. 15, 2015, I stood in a hotel in downtown Ottawa as the commissioners of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission shared the 94 Calls to Action. I remember the room with auras of super-bright colour as if the children who were lost had travelled from the stars to share in the moment. We stood in awe of these leaders...
Sergio Marchi got himself elected to North York city council at the tender age of 26, and just two years later, became a Liberal MP, just in time to see his party thrashed by Brian Mulroney’s Progressive Conservatives in 1984. But he stuck around, eventually earning three different jobs in Jean Chretien’s cabinets between 1993 and 2000. He chronicles it...
Last week I carefully read the statement of strategic purpose of the Trump administration, a document published by every recent incoming administration within a year of its inauguration. The strategic statement has been received with misgivings by members of the Fortress America school that holds that the United States should be ready at all times to repulse any initiative from...
There’s an old clip going around on social media this week showing Stephen Harper on his feet in the Commons batting away a question about the supposed impropriety of a Liberal MP crossing over to join his Conservatives. It was 2006 and Harper was being accused of “seducing” Liberal David Emerson over to his side. The then-PM first shrugged it...
Ten months away from a crucial provincial election, the Quebec Liberal Party (QLP) finds itself without a leader. Pablo Rodriguez, elected head of the party just last June, was forced to resign following a series of internal disputes and allegations of improprieties in the funding of his leadership campaign. For Rodriguez, a kind, affable man, this is nothing short of...
As Energy Minister Tim Hodgson says he's getting 'a lot of inquiries' about supporting the Liberal agenda, the Power & Politics panel of party insiders discusses whether Prime Minister Mark Carney's policies may 'attract' enough opposition MPs to reach a majority in the House.
A few days after Michael Ma decided to cross the floor to the Liberals, Pierre Poilievre was asked whether the loss of another MP was a problem for his leadership of the Conservative Party. On the contrary, Poilievre argued, it was a problem for the leadership of Mark Carney. The prime minister was, in Poilievre's words, "trying to manipulate his...
Given the economic and geopolitical events of the past year, it’s tempting to say that Mark Carney’s introduction to elected politics has been a baptism by fire. On closer inspection, it has really been defined by the kind of cosmic luck that most politicians can only dream of. There’s no disputing that 2025 was an unprecedentedly disruptive year in the...
Canada is being battered by an especially bad flu season. None of this should be particularly surprising, since we had data from the southern hemisphere’s flu season to suggest once winter reared its head here we would be in for the same flu-induced misery as our cousins below the equator. In a normal country, this kind of advance notice would...
At some point, Danielle Smith is going to have to pick a side. For months now, Alberta’s premier has been catering to the separatists who dominate the membership of her United Conservative Party while insisting she doesn’t explicitly support their cause. But their appetite just keeps growing, and with Smith’s government clearing the way for a referendum on Alberta independence...
As Canada prepares to enter its second year navigating the aggressive trade policies of Donald Trump, it’s worth pausing a moment to take stock and remind ourselves of what will and won’t work as the focus shifts to the future of the Canada-US-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA). While most Canadians would agree that the tariff policies of Donald Trump have created challenges...
Israel's security cabinet approved 19 new settlements on Sunday. Canada and 13 other countries issued a joint statement Wednesday condemning the Israeli security cabinet's approval of 19 new settlements in the occupied West Bank. “We recall that such unilateral actions, as part of a wider intensification of the settlement policies in the West Bank, not only violate international law but...
Since Mark Carney became prime minister in March, he has made promises to spend big on major infrastructure projects as well as AI research and adoption. He’s also dealt with constant trade threats from his counterpart south of the border.
Europe is watching for a possible breakthrough in U.S.-led talks for a ceasefire in Ukraine, as Canada has repeatedly said it's up to Ukrainians to decide how the war ends. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has told reporters he would be willing to withdraw troops from the country's eastern industrial heartland as part of a plan to end Russia's invasion, if...
The federal government is suspending the planned export ban on single-use plastics due to tariffs and supply chain issues "creating significant pressure on the domestic economy." The government launched a 70-day consultation about not moving forward with the single-use plastic export ban on Saturday through the Canada Gazette. The government says the progress on environmental benefit expected with the export...
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand is affirming Greenland's sovereignty as Washington again says it wants to annex the self-governing territory of Denmark. Anand spoke Tuesday with her Danish counterpart Lars Lokke Rasmussen and says she conveyed "Canada's support for the fundamental importance of respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity." Her comments come after U.S. President Donald Trump appointed an envoy...
OTTAWA -- The federal government ran a budgetary deficit of $18.4 billion for its April-to-October period.
First PM should be honoured, defenders say. Others argue he's a symbol of genocide. The racial reckoning of the COVID era saw Canada grapple with its checkered past — a process that led to statues of some foundational figures being removed, in some instances by force. Five years on, there's a growing movement to restore some of what was taken...
Anglican Deacon Michael Van Dusen typically has plans for the Christmas season that do not involve a Toronto courthouse. Perhaps he would be preparing his Christmas Day sermon or visiting with family. But on Tuesday, he stood beside a painted banner that read "no faith in fossil fuels" and spoke to a small crowd, including some of his parishioners, about...
This year has been marked by economic upheaval, global conflict and climate change-induced natural disasters, and only a third of Canadians are optimistic things will get better in 2026, a new Leger poll suggests. Asked about their expectations for the new year, 35 per cent of respondents said they were optimistic that 2026 will be better than 2025. Thirty-seven per...
The Independent Senators Group—the largest group in the Red Chamber—will start the new year with a fresh team led by Ontario Senator Lucie Moncion at its helm. Moncion, whose election as incoming ISG facilitator was announced Dec. 10, says improving communications with the public, and leveraging the group’s strength in the Chamber are two areas on which she’s set her...
Wally Daudrich, who finished a close second in this year's Manitoba Progressive Conservative leadership race, is now hoping to run for a legislature seat. Daudrich is seeking the Opposition party's nomination in the Turtle Mountain constituency -- a Tory stronghold where incumbent Doyle Piwniuk has announced he will not seek re-election in 2027.
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s decision to appoint close friend and investment banker Mark Wiseman as Canada’s ambassador to the U.S. is leaving a sour taste in the mouths of Quebecers because of his affiliation with the Century Initiative, which has lobbied for mass immigration by 2100, and his criticism of supply management. But will this nomination realistically hurt Carney’s relationship...
OTTAWA -- The Bank of Canada's governing council says it's difficult to predict which direction interest rates may go as trade uncertainty clouds its outlook.
EDMONTON -- Elections Alberta issued three more recall petitions Tuesday for members of the provincial legislature -- two United Conservative backbenchers and one Opposition New Democrat.
WINNIPEG -- Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew says he's not going to fulfil a 2023 election campaign promise to regulate gas prices.
MONTREAL -- Pablo Rodriguez's successor as leader of the Quebec Liberal Party will be elected at a convention on March 14.
U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff campaign against Canada -- and the surge in patriotic zeal it inspired -- have been voted The Canadian Press News Story of the Year. Nearly two-thirds of editors and news directors surveyed from media organizations across the country picked the political and economic upheaval caused by Trump's trade war as the most consequential story of...
Mark Carney became Prime Minister on a promise to reduce Canadian dependence on the increasingly protectionist and unreliable United States under Donald Trump. “It’s clear the U.S. is no longer a reliable partner,” Mr. Carney said after taking office. “The old relationship” Canada had with the United States, he said, is over. Significant parts of his travel reflect this, with...
A segment of the American news program "60 Minutes," pulled by CBS News prior to its U.S. airing, began circulating online Monday with the branding of Canadian broadcaster Global TV. Multiple media reports say the program was uploaded to StackTV, Global's streaming platform, though it was not available to watch as of late Monday. Global TV and its parent company...
As Tim Houston stands in the Nova Scotia legislature, he looks around and begins to address the room. Houston says that when he was first elected premier, there was a freedom of information request that "gave (me) pause." The premier says he thinks he knows who sent the request in but can't be sure. The applicant had asked for the...
It was a surreal moment on a day full of such moments. Trevor Halford walked into the main chamber of the British Columbia legislature on Dec. 3 as interim leader of his Conservative Party of B.C., following an appointment by the party board. Hours earlier, 20 Conservative MLAs had released a letter in which they said that they had lost...
Jason Jacques says he learned a lot about the importance of choosing his words carefully in his first few months as the interim parliamentary budget officer. His whirlwind ascent from obscure bureaucrat to high-profile thorn in the Liberal government's side began in late summer, when outgoing budget officer Yves Giroux's term was set to end without a formal successor in...
A mandatory review of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico-Agreement on trade kicks into high gear next year as U.S. President Donald Trump continues his campaign to realign global trade and poach key industries from America's closest neighbours. Negotiations on the trade pact, better known as CUSMA, were a stress test for Ottawa during the first Trump administration. The trade talks were tense at...
More than 30 years after Canada's military allowed women to serve in combat roles, it's now specifically designing uniforms and body armour to fit their bodies. For decades, female soldiers have been wearing uniforms designed primarily for men and some say it has made their jobs harder, contributed to injuries and hurt morale. Retired major Sandra Perron became the country's...
Mission to deter Russian aggression in Baltic region already Canada's largest overseas deployment. Canada’s military operations command has embarked on a study about how the country’s NATO deployment in Latvia can be realistically sustained into the future, and one of options could involve more permanent basing, says a senior commander. Lt.-Gen. Steve Boivin, the commander of the Canadian Joint Operations...
Alberta's election agency announced Monday it has approved a proposed referendum question on the province separating from Canada. The question seeks a yes or no answer to: "Do you agree that the province of Alberta should cease to be a part of Canada to become an independent state?" Elections Alberta said the proponents — the Alberta Prosperity Project and its...
OTTAWA -- Immigration Minister Lena Diab issued new ministerial instructions that include requiring provincial or territorial attestation letters for study permits with the goal of capping foreign student applications at just under 310,000 in the new year.
The Liberals are preparing to bring forward new standalone legislation to address harmful content found online, reviving a Trudeau-era bill that failed to become law before this past year’s federal election, says a government source. The source, who asked to remain anonymous in order to speak freely, told The Hill Times the government was developing a new version of the...
Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers say they have reached tentative agreements. The deals announced Monday cover both the Urban Postal Operations and Rural and Suburban Mail Carriers bargaining units. CUPW's national board is recommending members accept the deals during ratification votes set to be held in early 2026.
Prime Minister Mark Carney has appointed a global investment banker and pension fund manager to be Canada's next ambassador in Washington. Carney's office said Mark Wiseman, who begins the role Feb. 15, will lead negotiations with the United States on a review of the continental free trade deal. Wiseman is a longtime friend of Carney who was among the first...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- President Donald Trump said Thursday night that he'd launched a "powerful and deadly strike" against Islamic State forces in Nigeria, after he spent weeks decrying the group for targeting Christians.
NEW YORK (AP) -- A planned Christmas Eve jazz concert at the Kennedy Center, a holiday tradition dating back more than 20 years, has been canceled. The show's host, musician Chuck Redd, says that he called off the performance in the wake of the White House announcing last week that President Donald Trump's name would be added to the facility.
The American Academy of Pediatrics sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Wednesday, seeking to block nearly $12 million in cuts to the group.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Justice Department said Wednesday that finishing the release of all of the Jeffrey Epstein files could take a "few more weeks," further delaying compliance with a Dec. 19 deadline set by Congress.
The people anxiously sipping hot chocolate in the Canadian Embassy in Washington on a cold night in January almost a year ago couldn't have predicted the roller-coaster of trade provocations and bilateral blow-ups the next 12 months would bring. In hindsight, that unusually chilly Washington evening foreshadowed how the Canada-U.S. relationship would soon freeze over. Trump's tariff threats and his...
Israel's security cabinet approved 19 new settlements on Sunday. Canada and 13 other countries issued a joint statement Wednesday condemning the Israeli security cabinet's approval of 19 new settlements in the occupied West Bank. “We recall that such unilateral actions, as part of a wider intensification of the settlement policies in the West Bank, not only violate international law but...
Europe is watching for a possible breakthrough in U.S.-led talks for a ceasefire in Ukraine, as Canada has repeatedly said it's up to Ukrainians to decide how the war ends. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has told reporters he would be willing to withdraw troops from the country's eastern industrial heartland as part of a plan to end Russia's invasion, if...
Prime Minister Mark Carney has appointed a global investment banker and pension fund manager to be Canada's next ambassador in Washington. Carney's office said Mark Wiseman, who begins the role Feb. 15, will lead negotiations with the United States on a review of the continental free trade deal. Wiseman is a longtime friend of Carney who was among the first...
Canada's U.S. ambassador says empathy for everyday Americans is important. If you ask Canada's Ambassador to the U.S. Kirsten Hillman how to get Trump-era Republicans on Canada's side, she'll tell you a story about a stuffed bison head. Hillman first came to Washington as deputy ambassador in 2017. She says around that time, Canada was trying to make inroads with...
Lisa Van Dusen: Senator Boehm, that was quite a year. Between the trade war, Donald Trump’s renewed undermining of multilateralism, and the geopolitical implications of American degradation — I think Trump’s recent National Security Strategy may have summed it up best as a capstone to 2025. How do you see Trump II, Year One? Sen. Peter Boehm: In foreign policy...
The year 2025 was a year of volatility, experimentation, and recalibration across Asia and Canada. Much of the volatility stemmed from U.S. President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff agenda, which upended global trade norms and injected new uncertainty into supply chains. China, meanwhile, pressed ahead with an increasingly assertive industrial strategy, even as it contended with slower domestic growth and structural...
Even modest Canadian engagement with China may be judged less on its merits than on how it is interpreted in the U.S. within a framework designed to ‘wind down adversarial outside influence.’
A collection of SubStack publishing within Canadian public affairs.
You may want to dust off your Bescherelles, Canadian politicos: the battle for the future of Québec is where things are going to happen in 2026. In case you missed it, today the new leader of the Québec Liberal Party, Pablo Rodriguez, announced his resignation. His resignation was precipitated by a terrible, scandalous month for the QLP — one that...
The federal government this week dumped its load of annual statistics about citizens’ use of the Access to Information Act.
Stephen Thorne has died. The bitter, unexpected death of a tough journalist who wrote about death but couldn’t report on his own. He’d have written a damn fine story about it. I was his boss for years, in Halifax and Ottawa, though Stephen had no time for bosses. He followed his nose for stories whether or not anybody asked for...
After the beating our predictions took in 2025, we’ve lifted ourselves up, dusted ourselves off and are once again ready to try to predict the political year to come. Yes, it’s time for our annual Over/Under Contest, the fifth year in a row that Philippe and I go head-to-head to see who has the better crystal ball for 2026. What...
The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols joins Steve to discuss Trump’s “ghoulish” comments about Rob and Michele Reiner’s murders, if this is a new low for him, how he sees the Trump administration as a “confederacy of toddlers,” if Trump is losing his grip on the Republican Party, the growing rift within the GOP, the resentments Americans feel, and what happens after...
Noor Azrieh and Sam Konnert look back on the moments that defined Canadian politics this year. We revisit viral clips, media meltdowns, Question Period fever dreams, floor crossers, immigration fights, Alberta separatism, national projects (that may or may not exist yet), and the growing sense that everything is moving very fast… but also somehow not at all.
David Herle, Scott Reid, Jordan Leichnitz, and Kory Teneycke provide insights on the latest in Canadian politics.
